1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bioassays generally and, more particularly, to a novel bioassay cassette with memory means.
2. Background Art
One of the methods for new drug discovery in pharmaceutical research is random drug screening. Biological assays are developed to test the mode of action for therapeutic targets. Typical targets may be cardiovascular, Alzheimer""s, osteoporosis, or the like. The assays are developed to determine if a potential drug candidate has an agonist (promotes) or antagonist (inhibits) effect on the target. The assay is then used to randomly screen a variety of compounds for their effect on that target.
Today large pharmaceutical firms will have compound libraries from 500,000 to 1,000,000 compounds. Even smaller biotech firms will have libraries in excess of 100,000 individual discreet compounds. High Throughput Screening (HTS) is considered to mean screening 10,000 compounds (data points) per day. Ultra High Throughput Screening (UHTS) is considered to mean screening 100,000 compounds per day. This is the current goal of many large firms.
There are a number of typical steps each compound must go through. When multiplied by 10,000 or 100,000, every day equates to considerable data handling and coordination. At the start of the chain of events, is the number of compounds required for the assays to be run today. The specific compounds are selected from storage. They are aliquoted in the desired amount for each assay. They are normally distributed in the specific microplate for that assay. It may be a 96 well plate or a 384 well plate. There are also specific types of plates, within those two plate styles. This aliquoting from the library storage plate to the assay plate is done with a pipetting instrument. That instrument must be programmed for the desired end result.
The compound plate, from the first pipetting device, was probably made at the same time similar plates were made for other assays, using the same compound library plate. These plates may require different parameters such as, a type of plate and amount of compound. The compound plates coming from this device must now be sorted and delivered to the correct assay, or to the next device.
At the specific assay, another pipetting instrument must be set up and programmed for the specific tasks at hand. From this pipettor the plates may go to other devices, such as a plate washer, incubator, or one or more additional pipetting steps. Finally, the finished assay plate may go to a reader, of some type, to readout for the final results of the assay.
At the beginning of the day, all of the various steps were known. What processing program was to be used on each device was known down to the last step. Yet short of an intricate complicated software network, each instrument had to be programmed individually for the task at hand. While it is conceivable that all instruments could be networked, it is impractical because of the wide variety of devices. In addition it would require specific integration software for each location. Yet each device, with few exceptions, has an RS232 serial communication port. Today that is almost mandatory for devices in this use.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide means associated with a memory that contains information defining the processing instructions for that plate.
Other objects of the present invention, as well as particular features, elements, and advantages thereof, will be elucidated in, or be apparent from, the following description and the accompanying drawing figures.
The present invention achieves the above objects, among others, by providing, in a preferred embodiment, a microplate cassette, comprising: a generally hollow housing to contain therein a plurality of microplates; and a memory device associated with said cassette and adapted to be placed in operational contact with a portion of a processing device.